Black Pepper Pineapple Galette - Sourdough Surprises

Pie crust. My nemesis the pie crust. Once again, Sourdough Surprises has me facing my kitchen fears. This month we were asked to make galettes/costratas. Rustic pies. I think I make a decent pie crust approximately 50% of the time. And that's being overly generous. I know my limitations so I don't try it too often though. I usually end up with a dough that's just much too sticky. Then a few weeks ago, I had something that was ridiculously dry. I don't even know what happened there. I think I added all the butter. But it just didn't look right. I gave up on that quickly.

I happy to say that this was definitely a good crust day! A great crust day, actually. I read a tip in the May/June 2015 Cook's Illustrated magazine about people running their pies under water before baking. I know! It sounded pretty daring to me too. My pie crust is already barely hanging on and you want me to place it under a stream of water? Anyway, the safer option, is to simply brush the crust with lots of water. The water allows more sugar to adhere to the crust. When it bakes, it turns into a candy-like layer. It's a really lovely crunch. It worked perfectly here.

I added a bit of black pepper because I love the sweet + spicy combination. You don't need a ton of it and it works so well here. I'm really proud of having a crust that didn't fall apart. The bottom wasn't even soggy! And I also had a really delicious filling. Such a perfect breakfast. Wins all around.  All it was missing was some ice cream. I just couldn't wait long enough to go get some. And yes, I said perfect breakfast. Is there something wrong with that? Oh right, it needs some protein. *smile*

Be sure to visit Sourdough Surprises to see all the other galettes we made this month!

Black Pepper Pineapple Galette

Ingredients
Crust
4 oz all purpose flour
12 grams sugar
1/2 teaspoon  salt
4 oz butter, cold
2 oz (by weight) 100% hydration sourdough starter, cold
Filling
10 oz pineapple, thinly sliced
sugar for tossing with the pineapple, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
sugar, for sprinkling over the crust

Whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Cut the butter into cubes and toss with the flour mixture. Place the flour-butter mixture in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Dump the mixture onto a work surface then use a rolling pin to roll the mixture and flatten all the cubes of butter into the flour. You could also use the heel of your hand to do this. You want thin sheets of butter-flour. Use a bench scraper to keep the pile together. After all the cubes have been flattened, return the mixture to a bowl and freeze for another 10 minutes. The point is to keep everything really cold at all times.
After chilling, add just enough sourdough starter that will moisten the flour and let it start clumping together. Dump onto a work surface and pat into a disk or rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
While the dough is chilling, toss the sliced pineapples with sugar. If your pineapple is pretty sweet, you can skip the sugar completely.
Preheat oven to 400 F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. .
Roll the dough out to a quarter inch thick circle or rectangle and place it onto the lined baking sheet. You do not want to try to move an already filled crust!  Place a layer of thinly sliced pineapples then sprinkle with a bit of freshly ground black pepper. Leave at least an one inch edge of the crust untouched. Repeat until you've used all the pineapple. Fold over the untouched edges

Brush the crust thoroughly with water and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden and the pineapple is cooked through. Cool slightly before serving.